The communication undergraduate program in our branch campus in Guayaquil held a webinar titled "How to handle fake news". The aim was to discuss fake news and how public relations can manage it properly. It was a 90 minute webinar for speakers to present their ideas and answer participants' questions. 

The speakers were Bismarck Arana and Cassia Delgado, professors; and Sonia Yánez,an expert in communication and public relations in public and private companies. The moderator was Marlene Mosquera, director of the communication undergraduate program.

The issue of fake news in our country has become relevant in the last few years, in 2016 when we were hit by an earthquake and WhatsApp and Facebook were widely used, in the 2017 elections, last year's national strike when there were lots of fake news in social networks and of course now because of the current situation.

Fake news can easily be confused with journalism or as an alternative way of creating information, which is not correct. Historically, fake news has always existed, but social networks have made its dissemination much faster and we can find hate and racist messages, said Delgado. 

Sonia Yánez said that the responsibility of contrasting information is important not only for communicators and government leaders but also for citizens. "In the first phase of the pandemic we think that we are contributing by disclosing information, but we do not verify its origin; it is time we transmitted peace, if we have information that can cause some type of shock, let's think a few seconds before sharing it because we do not know if the recipient who is behind screen is going through a difficult time and we could cause more panic, "Yánez said.
"Fake news is built around a real image or information which is taken out of context so it seems credible, it is the creation of a whole strategy that is used in transcendental moments to seek attention changes", said Mosquera. "For a fake news to have a powerful result you need a structure, a support team, support technology and a team of people who create them", videos, designs, analysis of platforms where to spread, etc; the best made fake news are the one that have the most impact, Yánez stated. 

Watch the webinar: https://bit.ly/2xUr7rt